Losing your job is rarely a pleasant experience. Now imagine that you are fired while you are on a business trip, not somewhere with a subway connection, but 22,000 kilometers away, in the middle of the Pacific. And then the impersonal, electronic message comes that you are no longer needed.
This happened to climate researcher Gianluca Grimalda. After six months of research on a Solomon Islands, his employer, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, demanded that he be back at his desk within a few days. However, Grimalda refuses to travel by air because he does not want to cause unnecessary climate-damaging emissions. He had already made most of the journey there by ship, bus and train, adventurous and lengthy, but possible if you take the time. Apparently his employer no longer wanted to give him this on his return journey. I have summarized here what is known about the case and why Grimalda only travels “slowly”.
In my opinion, Grimalda’s dismissal shows above all how complicated and difficult it is not only to find climate protection good in theory, but also to actually live it, with all the consequences.
Despite thousands and thousands of studies on the extent of the climate crisis, the group of people who act in this way is probably still manageable. Another representative of this group could be Lea Bonasera, co-founder of the “Last Generation”. My colleague Marlene Knobloch describes her in her portrait as a thoughtful woman who studied at Oxford and is doing her doctorate on civil resistance. With this background you could probably land a comfortable job in a Brussels think tank and jet from conference to conference. Bonasera, on the other hand, was recently sentenced to 50 daily rates and expects “that I will be in prison at some point.”
The fact that commitment to the climate and the environment generates more resistance instead of gratitude can also be seen from Jürgen Resch. As head of German Environmental Aid, he made many enemies, especially among drivers and lobbyists. But his new book also encourages you to realize that with persistence you can actually achieve something.
Grimalda, Bonasera, Resch. Three people, one thing in common: Those who consistently advocate for climate protection often don’t have an easy life. Actually, it should be exactly the other way around.
Or what do you think about that? Feel free to write to me at [email protected].
(This text comes from the weekly Newsletter Climate Friday you here free of charge can order.)